National
Disaster Relief and Management Committee headed by Najib should learn from
the failure to have an early warning system that could have saved scores of
lives lost in the devastating tsunami yesterday

Media Statementby Lim Kit Siang

(Penang,
Monday): I wish to send my deepest
condolences to the bereaved families of the victims of the giant tsunami
waves in Malaysia triggered by the powerful undersea earthquake in Sumatra
yesterday.

Malaysians
are shocked that what was “unthinkable” has happened, and that Malaysia is
not immune from the devastating aftermath of natural disasters like
earthquakes and tsunamis.

While all
efforts must be made to help the victims of the tsunami yesterday and to
prepare the people for the possibility of further waves of the Sumatra
earthquake, which measured 9.0 Richter scale, the National Disaster Relief
and Management Committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib
Razak should learn from the failure to have an early warning system that
could have saved scores of lives lost in the devastating tsunami in Penang,
Kedah, Perlis and Perak yesterday.

The tsunami
catastrophe is the worst natural disaster in the history of the country,
and although Malaysia did not suffer the brunt of the calamity like
Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, this is no consolation when every
human life lost could have been saved if an early warning system had been in
place.

The
devastation in human lives and suffering yesterday could have been largely
averted if Malaysia and other south-east Asian countries had taken their
discussions last year seriously about introducing an early warning system
for tsunamis although they happen very rarely in the Indian Ocean.

As has been
pointed out by an oceanic and atmospheric expert, it took an hour and a half
for the wave to get from the earthquake in Sumatra to Sri Lanka and an hour
for it to get to the west coast of Malaysia and Thailand, and people could
have walked inland for 15 minutes to get to a safe area. But such a tsunami
early warning system was completely absent.

Instead,
many people yesterday were attracted by the spectacular waves until they
were swept into the water and lost their lives.